You could definitely start right in with Skyrim. The story isn't continuous from the prior installments (at least a hundred years has passed in "story time" since Oblivion), and only a little bit of reference is made in Skyrim to events from the earlier games.

Another thing is that all the Elder Scrolls games take place in different geographic areas from past games, so you're not visiting the same locations at all.

The only thing you really gain by having played Morrowind or Oblivion is an understanding of the basic concepts (which change a little each time anyway) of different character types or classes (say, a warrior type character versus a magic using character), different races (they look distinct and have slightly different attributes), and what all the different skills (say, lockpicking and alchemy) are, and the different attributes (strength, wisdom and so on).

If you've played other similar games (Diablo, World of Warcraft, Neverwinter Nights), or even played D&D, you'll understand the basic idea anyway.

You could definitely start right in with Skyrim. The story isn't continuous from the prior installments (at least a hundred years has passed in "story time" since Oblivion), and only a little bit of reference is made in Skyrim to events from the earlier games.

Another thing is that all the Elder Scrolls games take place in different geographic areas from past games, so you're not visiting the same locations at all.

Another thing to ease first-timers into the game is that in your travels, you will come across literally dozens of 'books' which attempt to tell a bit of the history of Tamriel(of which Skyrim is just one province), which goes a long way toward explaining what kind of world the Elder Scrolls games take place in. They give you enough to paint the broad strokes so you understand that Skyrim doesn't exist in a vacuum, yet you don't feel like you're missing out on anything by not having played the previous games.

So far, I'm loving it. I already jumped off the beaten path and wandered around, found a few caverns and bandit lairs and just now, decided to see what the main plot was all about. The game needs a few tweaks at first to play smoothly, but, as usual, the Elder Scrolls community has already come through with lots of fixes to help make the game that much better. There are already a few mods out there to plug into the game.

Ha... when I played Morrowind ... I accidentally missed a turn and just kept going and going and going instead of turning around - and ended up on the total other side of the island. Didn't get back to the main story for a very long time... because with these games - you just don't have to.

Ah just checked the map for those of you that have played... I walked all the way to Vos in the upper right at the very beginning of the game.

This weekend I played a bit more Skyrim than I'd planned to, but much less than I would've liked!

The game looks and plays quite a bit different from Oblivion in many respects. Character creation, class selection, skill building, leveling, the process of alchemy -- all significantly changed.

In just a few hours I attained 6th level without really concentrating on leveling. Escaped from captivity, killed my first dragon, learned to shout, made several potions, ate lots of mushrooms and flowers.

They've definitely scaled the leveling differently. I think a lot of people wanted to have the chance to continue leveling up past 40th or so in Oblivion, at which point it became very difficult to increase skills enough to go up another level. At some point in Oblivion it became pretty difficult to find any new challenges. It's too bad they never released an expansion geared toward highest-level characters, with challenges and rewards appropriate to powerful characters who already possess tons of gold and the most powerful artifacts, items and spells.

I haven't gone far enough yet in Skyrim (just played briefly last night, so now 7th level) to say for sure, but while I'm enjoying the game very much, I don't think the answer to the leveling problem with Oblivion is simply to make each level easier to obtain so the character levels up faster, but maxes out at 100 instead of 40 or so. What's the point of simply making Oblivion level 3 equivalent to Skyrim level 6 or 7, and still having the character max out at a point when the player might still want to continue on and find new challenges?

The leveling in the game is definitely better. It feels more natural as you gain levels because while you're adventuring, you're also improving your skills(1-handed, Archery, Destruction, etc). Gaining a level seems like more of an accomplishment because you've actually done more than just killing stuff while on a quest. Not to mention what you've seen and found along the way. I have to think that this bodes very well for future content, especially once the mod community gets its hands on the editing tools.

Speaking of Steam and Oblivion, they have an incredibly cheap deal on Oblivion GOTY editions via Steam through tomorrow. The regular Game of the Year edition is $4.99 (basically Oblivion plus Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles expansions) and the "deluxe" GOTY edition is $6.49 and also includes all the additional minor expansions and downloadable content like armor for your horse and that kind of stuff.

This game certainly looks amazing....but I know all too well what happens with me and immersive computer games. I have not seriously gamed since....get ready for a long time ago... Bungie's Marathon and Marathon 2: Durandal way back in the 90s. I would start playing at 9-10 pm and go until dawn, easily. I realized that I simply couldn't ever afford to get that "into" a game ever again. It was way too easy to just keep playing and ignore everything else - eating, sleeping, etc. So, I've never owned a game console either. I just know myself too well. It would be the end of me! LOL...I have too many other things to do. But, this is the first game, I must admit, that makes me want to pick it up again (well, actually, Riven did that to me as well...but I really sucked at Riven so giving it up was easy). I watched a demo on youtube and I thought "Now THAT is pretty awesome." and then realized "okay, close the youtube clip and back away....slowly!"

I'm 14th level. It hasn't taken a lot of play time, nor a lot of focus on trying to level up. I've been splitting my time between the main quest, the College of Winterhold, and a bit of random exploration. Right now I'm going up to see the Graybeards to figure out the way of the voice.

Mike, you will enjoy the Greybeards questline a lot, if only to see the majesty of High Hrothgar. Looking down from there on the rest of Skyrim is pretty incredible. I imagine an avalanche of cheese wheels falling down from there would be awesome as well. Shouts are lots of fun.

I've had a blast playing the game. The world is immense, and I'm enjoying just exploring it. I just started the Mage College questline and am trying to follow that through to the end. It's easy to fill up with, and get distracted by side quests, of which I have way too many. Even with all that, and being level 32, I think I've only seen about a third of the game, if that.

I also find myself just looking around at some of the incredible sights. The city of Solitude perched on its rocky precipice. Walking across a stone bridge in a huge cavern with a waterfall trickling from a vaulted ceiling above and a dizzying drop below, light playing around the walls from torches or glowing lichen. Dragons sitting on the arches above a tomb before they see you and fly up to do battle. The twin moons rising above the mountains on a starry night. My Steam page(Yes, I'm Antdude there, too) is full of screenshots of my adventures so far.

The sound design is also incredible. Hearing a dragon crash down and roar the first time is quite the experience. Jeremy Soule has created probably his best musical score yet. It's suitably epic in battle(the Viking chorus shouting when you've defeated a dragon) and melodic when you're just exploring.

Many quests will send you into tombs and caves and you'll find yourself up against lots of unpleasant or undead creatures. There is one called Shroud Hearth Barrow, near Iverstead, that I really enjoyed battling through. Lots of enemies, booby traps and atmosphere to keep you company, with a nice payoff at the end.

If I haven't already sold it with all that puffery, this is definitely the Game of the Year for me. And with the editing tools soon to be released, the Elder Scrolls community will provide lots of new content for an already massive game.

The effect of leveling up so quickly is that I'm 14th level but still pretty weak in combat. I have to remember to save very frequently because I'm constantly stumbling across random encounters that kill me. In Oblivion I recall the random encounters (say, bandits on the roadside) being weaker than the beasts you ran into in dungeons, but this is the reverse. I keep stumbling across giants and frost wraiths and stuff that can kill me in one or two hits.

I agree about the sights and views. More than once I've had a "fear of heights" moment as I've approached the edge of a waterfall or a high cliff.

I'll be tempted to buy the PC version of Skyrim so I can load user-created adventures, for sure.

I now have the game, pc version, but have not installed it yet. Would have to go on my music computer, but I have never connected it to the web, and would love to avoid doing that. Anyone know if the Steam activation can be done without a web connection ?

I also need to upgrade the graphics card before running it. Not a problem.

Heck, I may just go for a new machine, my web computer is pretty old now anyway. Could use replacing.

I now have the game, pc version, but have not installed it yet. Would have to go on my music computer, but I have never connected it to the web, and would love to avoid doing that. Anyone know if the Steam activation can be done without a web connection ?

I also need to upgrade the graphics card before running it. Not a problem.

Heck, I may just go for a new machine, my web computer is pretty old now anyway. Could use replacing.

Anthony - You will need to connect to Steam for authentication purposes when you first install the game(all Steam games work like this). Once you've installed and validated the game, you can then go into Offline Mode, which essentially restarts Steam in a non-active mode, but you'll be able to run your game. All patches and updates for Steam games will require you to relog into Steam to get them, but you always have the choice to go to Offline mode afterward if you're concerned about an always-on network connection.

As far as the new machine goes, you should get at least 4 GB of RAM and make sure your video card has at least 1 GB of VRAM so you can run Skyrim in all its visual glory. A fast processor goes without saying. All of which you can get for less than a grand if you shop around.